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Missiles & Misconceptions: Why We Know More About the Dark Side of the Moon than the Depths ARCNWVE, of the Ocean OF TECHNOLoGY byhe O c a JUL 3 0 20 14 - by Grace Calvert Young LIBRARIES Submitted to the Department of Mechanical & Ocean Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical & Ocean Engineering at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2014 @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014. All rights reserved. Author..................Signature redacted Department of Mechanical & Ocean Engineaing May 12, 2014 / Certified by... Sig.nature redacted........... Pierre Lermusiaux Associate Professor Thesis Supervisor Signature redacted Accepted by........................................ Anette Hosoi Professor of Mechanical Engineering Missiles & Misconceptions: Why We Know More About the Dark Side of the Moon than the Depths of the Ocean by Grace Calvert Young Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering on on May 16, 2014 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical & Ocean Engineering ABSTRACT Tens of billions of dollars are spent on manned and unmanned missions probing deeper into space, while 95% of Earth's oceans remain unexplored. The more intensive focus on space exploration is a historically recent phenomenon. For millennia until the mid-20th century, space and ocean exploration proceeded roughly at the same pace, driven by military and commercial inter- ests as well as simple curiosity. Both date back to early civilization when star-gazers scanned the skies, and sailors and free-divers scoured the seas. Since the 1960s, however, the trajectories of exploration diverged dramatically. Cold War-inspired geopolitical-military imperatives propelled government funding of space research to an extraordinary level, while ocean exploration stagnated in comparison. Moreover, although the Cold War ended more than 20 years ago, the disparity in research efforts remains vast despite evidence that accelerating changes in our marine ecosystems directly threatens our wellbeing. This thesis reviews the history of space and ocean exploration through the Cold War to the present. It also dispels persistent misconceptions that led to the disparity in resources allocated between space and ocean exploration and argues for prioritizing ocean research. Thesis Supervisor: Pierre Lermusiaux, Associate Professor of Mechanical & Ocean Engineering 2 We shall not cease from exploration And the end of our exploring Will be to return where we started And know the place for the first time. - T.S. Eliot 2 Contents 1 Introduction 4 2 Pre-Cold War History of Space and Ocean Exploration 6 2.1 Early Star Gazers ............................ .. 6 2.2 Sea Explorers ....... ........ ... .... .... ... .. 10 3 Cold War & Beyond 15 3.1 Pre-NASA ........ ................................ 16 3.2 Pre-NOAA ........ ................................ 19 3.3 Founding of NASA & Subsequent Space Research ... ........ 29 3.4 Founding of NOAA & Subsequent Ocean Research .......... 33 4 Misconceptions 34 4.1 Space as a Military Imperative. ... ............ ...... 34 4.2 Ocean's Impact on Human Life ........ ............ 35 4.3 Extent of Oceanographic Knowledge ........ ......... 39 5 Conclusion: Will There Be a Sputnik for the Ocean? 42 6 Acknowledgements 44 Appendices 48 A Space Versus Sea Exploration Timeline 49 B US Government Expenditure on Space Activities, 1959 - 2008 54 C US Government Expenditure on Ocean Activities, 2014 55 3 1 Introduction We know less of the oceans at our feet, where we came from, than we do of the sky above our heads. - President John F. Kennedy, 1963 We know more about the dark side of the moon than the depths of the ocean. This is startling, considering how much more tangible the ocean is than space, and more importantly, how much more critical it is to the health and survival of humanity. Tens of billions of dollars are spent on manned and unmanned missions probing deeper into space, while 95% of Earth's oceans remain unexplored.1 The result is a perilous dearth in knowledge about our planet at a time when rapid changes in our marine ecosystems profoundly affect its habitability. The more intensive focus on space exploration is a historically recent phenomenon. For millennia until the mid-20th century, space and ocean exploration proceeded roughly at the same pace, driven by curiosity, military, and commerce. Both date back to early civilization when star-gazers scanned the skies, and sailors and free-divers scoured the seas. Since the 1960s when Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard descended to the deepest point on the ocean floor, and Neil Armstrong ascended to the moon, however, the trajectories of exploration diverged dramatically. Cold War-inspired geopolitical-military imperatives propelled space research to an extraordinary level, while ocean exploration stagnated in comparison. Moreover, although the Cold War ended more than 20 years ago, the disparity in effort remains vast despite evidence that accelerating changes in our marine ecosystems directly threatens our wellbeing.* Misconception about the relative importance of space and ocean exploration caused, and continues to sustain, this knowledge disparity to our peril. In the following section, we review the history of space and ocean exploration *See the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Report. Alan B. Sielen also gives an overview of the ocean's poor health and it's repercussions in "See Change" (Foreign Affairs. 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014). 4 before the Cold War, when the pace of exploration in each sector was more or less comparable for thousands of years. We show in section 3, however, how the relative paces and trajectories of exploration diverged dramatically during the Cold War and continue to the present. In section 4 we seek to dispel the persistent misconceptions that have led to the disparity in resources allocated between space and ocean exploration, and argue for prioritizing ocean research. Finally, in section 5 we highlight the urgent imperative for expanding our understanding of the ocean. 5 2 Pre-Cold War History of Space and Ocean Ex- ploration Science unfolded her treasures and her secrets to the desperate demands of men, and placed in their hands agencies and apparatus almost decisive in their character. - Winston Churchill, reflecting on WWI Space and ocean exploration proceeded at similar paces until the 1950s, when the Cold War commenced. The first star-gazers created maps of the heavens based on carefully observed patterns. During the Renaissance, they built telescopes and rockets to probe even deeper into space. Early sea explorers took to the seas for food, transportation, and military conquest. As early as Alexander the Great's era, they used technology to dive deeper and longer. Understanding of the sky and sea were tied, especially in ancient Egypt, because the stars informed navigators at sea and could predict tides and the agricultural seasons. 2.1 Early Star Gazers The earliest space explorers were star-gazers, driven by curiosity, spirituality, and the need for an agricultural calendar. The world's oldest observatory, known as the Goseck circle located in modern Germany, dates back to 4900 BC.2 Openings on the structure aligned with the sunrise and sunset of the winter and summer solstices, and it likely served as a place for celestial worship and as a calendar.3 Ancient Egyptians also observed the sky to predict floods and schedule plantings.4 The Nebra sky disk, dating from 1600 BC, contains the oldest known depiction of an astronomical phenomena and was found not far from the Goseck circle.5 Likewise, the ancient Mesopotamians, as well as the Inca, Maya and Aztecs, were famously sophisticated star gazers. 6 (a) (b) Figure 1: (a) Victor Hess (center) returning from his 1912 balloon flight, during which he discovered cosmic rays. (Credit: American Physical Society) (b) Launch of German V-2 in 1943; the developers of the rocket gave their knowledge to the US at the close of WWII as part of Operation Paperclip, which helped to launch the Cold War-era Space Age. (Credit: German Federal Archives) In the 2nd century BC, the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes furthered a mathematical understanding of heavenly bodies when he measured the earth's circumference based on the sun's relationship to the earth. Scientific understanding of the solar system spiked during the Renaissance. In the 16th century, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus provided a full mathematical de- scription of the heliocentric system, later corroborated by the Italian physicist Galileo Galilei. Meanwhile, Galileo improved the telescope for astronomical observations, and used the device to discover moons of Jupiter and the craters on earth's moon, among other celestial phenomenon. In late 17th and early 18th century England, Sir Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley, among others, developed scientists' understanding of planetary orbits and arrangements, and improved telescope optics pioneered by Galileo to facilitate the discovery of new heavenly bodies. We gained most of our knowledge of space during the 20th century, however, with the aid of technological advances in photography, telescopes, imaging across the electromagnetic spectrum, and rocketry. In 1912, the Austrian-American physicist 7 Victor Hess rode a balloon up to 5.3 km and collected data that proved the existence of cosmic rays. In 1924, using the world's largest telescope, American astronomer Edwin

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